La Promesse (1996; Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne) GRADE: B+ By Mike Dub In the hands of the right filmmakers, adolescence provides fertile ground for exploring the conditions that shape society. Far from just the finite crises of finding acceptance, achieving arbitrary victories, beating up a bully, and losing […]
The Ballad of Narayama (1983; Shôhei Imamura) GRADE: A- By Mike Dub The opening image of Shôhei Imamura’s 1983 Palme d’Or winner The Ballad of Narayama is a somewhat anachronistic helicopter shot. We’re ushered deep into the mountainous recesses of the Japanese wilderness, a journey that reaches further […]
Meet Marlon Brando (1965; Albert and David Maysles) Grade: B By Mike Dub In the introduction to last year’s ESFS Festival about the “Dark Ages” of Marlon Brando, we discussed the unrelenting stream of box office bombs that afflicted Brando throughout the 1960s. Hamstrung under a difficult contract […]
Assault on the Pay Train (1962; Roberto Farias) Grade: B+ By Mike Dub Almost every heist movie ever made invests half its time depicting the expertise and professionalism involved in the detailed planning of the caper, then leads to an ostensibly heart-pounding climax in which the crime is […]
Kagemusha (1980; Akira Kurosawa) GRADE: A- By Mike Dub It might be hard to think that, at the age of seventy and already recognized around the world as a master of modern cinema, Akira Kurosawa would be capable of surprising us with a film that is as grand […]
Dersu Uzala (1975; Akira Kurosawa) GRADE: B- By Mike Dub Kurosawa has always been considered by critics to exhibit the most “western” style of filmmaking of all the Japanese greats. So it shouldn’t come as too big a surprise that Dersu Uzala at times feels more like one […]
